School may be out through Wednesday

The Anderson-based Anderson School District 5's board of trustees special meeting for Tuesday night is also canceled, said superintendent Betty Bagley.

The meeting, which would have determined what issues district officials take into consideration when redrawing district middle school attendance zone lines, will have to be rescheduled.

"I was so eager to have this meeting," Bagley said. "We've got to reschedule it as soon as possible. I'm very concerned about sticking to the timetable."

The board had received community feedback in December about how to set priorities for the rezoning, but board members asked that the district send letters home to all the parents in the district asking for opinions.

Bagley said that as of Friday, the district had received an additional 1,600 to 1,800 responses from parents.

District officials will redraw the middle school attendance zone lines for presentation to the board in February. In March, another set of community feedback meetings will be held before taking the final recommendations to the board in April.

By 1 p.m. Monday, officials had already canceled school for Tuesday for all five school districts in Anderson County.

And some officials wondered whether students would be out of class on Wednesday as well.

With more than six inches of snow on the ground and predictions of sleet and freezing rain on Monday evening, school officials decided early to cancel school.

By 11:30 a.m. Monday, the School District of Pickens County had already canceled school. Schools in Hart County, Ga., were also closed.

"This is not going to go anywhere," said Wayne Fowler, superintendent of Williamston-based Anderson School District 1. "With the temperatures not expected to go much above freezing, and the icy conditions we're expecting, it may not be gone by Wednesday. I don't know that you need to do anything about it right now except go out and play in it and enjoy it."

Fowler said all five Anderson County superintendents held conference calls to determine whether to close the schools.

"On a typical weather event, we'll go out, each of us, and ride the roads," Fowler said. "We'll drive 100 miles of road to determine whether or not to shut down schools. But on a day like today, where you're already snowed in, you don't need to do that."

Monday's snow day will be made up on Monday, April 25, in Anderson County, according to the districtwide calendar. Tuesday's snow day will be made up on June 8. If there is an additional snow day, it will be made up on June 9. If necessary, Fowler said, additional days will be added to the school year.

In Pickens County, Monday will be made up on March 15, and Tuesday will be made up on April 25. If a third snow day is called, it will be made up on June 3.

In Oconee County, snow days will be made up on March 21 and April 25.

Betty Bagley, superintendent of Anderson-based Anderson School District 5, said superintendents would be monitoring the situation throughout the day before determining whether to cancel schools on Wednesday.

Bagley said most districts in the county, if not all, were equipped to allow maintenance officials to monitor and control temperatures within the schools from laptops, eliminating the need for anyone to actually go to the schools. Heat in the buildings will be turned down to save money.

But the savings will balance out, Bagley said, with the snow makeup days.

Officials said there were no reports of any damage to or problems at the schools.